Project Developer

The project "Afforestation with Hazelnut Plantations in Western Georgia" sequesters carbon on previously abandoned land in a poor rural region near the Black Sea coast. It halts ongoing land degradation by improving its natural resources, while also providing much needed, sustainable and long-term income opportunities to local communities.

The project takes advantage of additional income from carbon credits to provide significant opportunities for environmental amelioration and better economic opportunities in the Samegrelo region of Georgia. By creating a permanent forest cover on previously abandoned lands, it stops ongoing degradation, replenishing soil and vegetative stocks. The region where the project is implemented has excellent economic potential, yet investment is currently hampered by several risk factors, including political, social and armed conflict risks. Financing for agricultural projects is particularly difficult to obtain --and dried out altogether in 2010.
Samegrelo was a cornerstone of fruit nuts and wine supply to the former soviet empire. But after the collapse of the former system in the 1990's, the region was left with serious lack of capacity, including deteriorating infrastructure and uncertain land tenure issues. Land abandonment and degradation followed, aggravated over the last twenty years by slash and burn clearing for grazing and small-scale crop cultivation, deforestation of wind-breakers and illegal waste dumping leading to pollution. The project by contrast rehabilitates local soil, land and water resources, recovering land production potential while generating needed financial resources via carbon credits. Afforestation with hazelnut plantations represents a replicable model for the Samegrelo region, offering significant environmental and economic opportunities, including higher employment, income, transfer of technology and know-how.